


Her World

by TrueSoprano



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Evil Lone Wanderer, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-12 21:38:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15349287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrueSoprano/pseuds/TrueSoprano
Summary: No one will ever fill the void Lillie's father left in her heart, but Mister Burke has somehow found a place inside.





	Her World

Lillie curls up beside her dad in his bed, finally feeling calm. Butch had attempted to scare her with stories of tunnel snakes that would sneak up behind vault dwellers and eat their brains, and the 5 year old girl took the story a little too seriously, being afraid to go to bed. James, overprotective as always, tells her she can sleep in his bed, since the snakes will be too afraid of an adult man. The vault beds are small, and the child is growing fast, but he doesn’t care, because she’s his world.

***

Lillie curls up beside Mister Burke in his bed, feeling safe. The wasteland is no place for a 19 year old girl, and if she hadn’t hired him as her bodyguard, she would certainly be dead by now. All she has to do for him is put out. But it doesn’t feel like payment. Her world is numb and grey, and when Burke touches her, uses her as his own, it’s the only spark of hope. Especially afterwards, when the two fall asleep tangled together, and the horrors of the wasteland seem so far away.

***

“I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” plays on an old holotape as Lillie stands on her dad’s feet, in a slow dance. Even at an elevated height, her eyes only reach her father’s navel.

“Your mother loved this song,” he tells her as he holds her hands and moves slowly enough as to not make her feet slip. “We loved to dance, just like this… although she was a little taller.”

“Do you miss her?” she asks.

“Every day,” he says without hesitation. “And she loved you so much.”

“What was she like?”

“She was… God, she was amazing. She was so smart, and funny, and beautiful… and she loved it when I did this!”

He suddenly bends down to pick the child up and swing her above his head, his grip ever sturdy. She giggles, and he lowers her to hold her to his chest, her chin resting on his shoulder as her legs wrap around him.

“But she’s still here, you know,” he says softly into her ear before kissing her head, still swaying to the music. “She’s in my heart, and yours.”

***

“I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” plays on Lillie’s Pip-Boy as she enters a languorous dance with Mister Burke. One hand is on her waist, holding her close, as another grasps her hand.

“You’re a good dancer,” she says. “I didn’t expect you to be.”

“Why not?” his voice is low and decadent. “Because I’m a psychopath who cares more about money than human life?”

She giggles. “Is that what they say about you?”

He pulls her closer to put a slow but chaste kiss on her lips. “When you’re out in the wasteland long enough, you learn to ignore all the mean words. Because they don’t understand people like us.”

“And eventually people will thank us for purging the wasteland of degenerates.”

“Mmm.” He puts a hand on her cheek as he continues to dance with her. She truly was lucky to find someone like him, someone who didn’t let ideas of “compassion” get in the way of the truth: the wasteland was full of scum. She had been harassed constantly her first day out of the vault, chastised for her wide-eyed view of the world.

They had deserved their fate.

“Ironic…” he croons in her ear, “that we dance to this song, considering how we met…”

She smiles wickedly as she’s pulled into another kiss.

***

Lillie takes her very first sip of scotch and flinches, barely holding it down.

“I told you you wouldn’t like it!” her dad teases. “But a promise is a promise, and I lived up to it.”

It was her 18th birthday, and as usual, the other vault dwellers had thrown her a mediocre party with mediocre presents. Exciting gifts weren’t exactly easy to come by when you lived underground for 18 years. But her father had promised her her first drink of alcohol after the party, and so far it was the most disappointing gift of all.

“So, this is it?”

He laughs. “It’s an acquired taste. I think you’ll like it better like this.” He opens a Nuka Cola bottle and pours some in to another glass with a smaller amount of scotch. “Maybe when you’re my age, you’ll enjoy it straight up.”

She takes a sip and it’s way better. It still burns, but at least it’s drinkable.

“So why do you like it so much?” she asks, continuing to sip slowly. “How could you possibly think it tastes good?”

He sighs. “It makes everything easier. With your mother dying, and feeling trapped in this vault, and… and…”

“Dad…”

“And you growing up so fast.”

She puts a hand on his back. “Dad, I may be an adult now, but I’m not going anywhere. Where would I go?”

The two stare into each other’s eyes, and then they laugh. Soon, one drink turns into two, and then three, and the vault is filled with laughter and reminiscing and longing and most importantly, love.

***

Lillie takes what is probably her millionth sip of scotch as she looks down from her balcony. She doesn’t feel a thing. The wind is cold and she’s wearing nothing but a thin silk chemise, but she doesn’t feel it. The scotch is the same as the first time, but it doesn’t burn anymore.

Her father is dead. The light in her life has burned out.

The world is an odd amalgam of shapes and waves and feelings and it’s just… existing aggressively. Everything goes on except her father, the most important person in her world.

She understands what he means about alcohol making everything easier. It’s the only thing that even feels remotely good, and she can’t even say she feels good.

“Lillie.”

Mister Burke has opened the door. She slowly turns around and he comes into focus, and she drops the now-empty bottle of scotch, letting it shatter.

“Lillie, you’re drunk and it’s freezing and you should be inside.”

“I know.”

And she runs into his arms, and everything comes out.

“Burke…”

“Lillie, it’s ok to cry. The world isn’t fair, especially not to you.”

She feels herself sinking into him as she sobs, loud and ugly, eyes and nose completely wet. She’s ruining his suit but he doesn’t seem to care. If it weren’t for him, she would have flung herself off the balcony a long time ago.

Maybe everything would be ok.

Maybe she could let go of the past.

Burke was her world now.

**Author's Note:**

> I have like a million other fanfics I still need to finish but I've been having James feels lately.


End file.
